The hunt for millions of counterfeit toonies

The Big Story

Canadians love our toonies. And that might explain why a story about bogus ones became our most listened to episodes of all time.

So on one of the last remaining summer weekends, enjoy this trip inside the shadowy world of Canadian coin counterfeiting, and make sure to take a look in your own change bowl to see if you've been carrying around any fakes.

Enjoy!

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They call it the "camel-toe toonie", and you will understand why as soon as you look at the front right paw of the polar bear on it. Since they were first discovered in circulation in 2020, estimates range from at least tens of thousands to likely millions of them reaching circulation.

But who is behind it? How do you counterfeit toonies at scale and get them into the banking system? And ... why toonies?

GUEST: Brent Mackie, creator of cameltoetoonies.ca, numismatist, treasurer of Waterloo Coin Society

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